Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Photographer’s
enthusiasm knows no bounds when they are trying to take pictures – and I was
more than a bit worried in the two photos that I am posting here.

Risk is the
potential of gaining or losing something of value. Values (such as physical
health, social status, emotional well-being, or financial wealth) can be gained
or lost when taking risk resulting from a given action or inaction, foreseen or
unforeseen (planned or not planned). Risk can also be defined as the
intentional interaction with uncertainty.Every human endeavour carries some risk, but some
are much riskier than others.There are
many risk classifications such as :Pure, Speculative, Particular, Fundamental, Static, Dynamic, Financial
and more .. ‘not all risks are insurable’ – though the
fundamental of insurance is risk coverage !

The Winter Olympics
is on – and its concluding smoothly without a hitch will provide the Organisers
a toast of success and Insurers would be celebrating with profit.The
Games are being staged about two hours' drive from one of the world's most heavily
militarised borders, in a host country that is technically at war with its neighbor
(yet participating as one Unit !!) and
with teams that include two nations -- the United States and North Korea --
which have swapped nuclear threats. There are also concerns among Olympic
organisers and sponsors that the Games, at the ski resort of Pyeongchang, could
become a target of cyber hacking, a threat that could disrupt competition in
the event of a major cyber attack.

The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) has reportedly taken insurance protection for around $800 million at each
Games, which covers the vast majority of the roughly $1 billion investment it
makes in each of the host cities. The coverage
includes pay out for a range of mishaps,
ranging up to declarations of war, actual war, or acts of war. The
IOC declined to reveal the premium it has paid for the Pyeongchang, but
insurers said it was likely to be around 2-3 percent of the total cover. At the IOC's coverage of about $800 million,
this would represent a cost of around $16-24 million. One underwriter said this
would be relatively high and could reflect the greater security risks
surrounding the Pyeongchang event. At the summer Games at Rio de Janeiro in
2016, when worries were centred on an outbreak of Zika virus, and at London in
2012, the IOC paid premiums of about $13 million.

Getting back, there
are moments whence photographers break conventional methods, trying for great
angles and rare photos.First is to get
out of their comfortable zone ! trying out something new, warding off
stagnation.Though having a good mentor
helps in having your basics right, there is no stopping when it comes to
innovation

in the first friend Rajagopal Madhavan standing on a truck
covering purappadu at Thiruneermalai (Pic Keshav Rajagopalan)

~ the one above was taken from mid sea in a catamaran during
masimagam by Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh.

Elsewhere in UK,
MailOnline reports of the moment a driver
risked his life and stood in the middle of a busy motorway so he could take
some photos.It appears that the man had
just been involved in a collision and had decided to risk traffic for some
photographic evidence. The footage,
filmed on the A45 near Northampton, shows the brazen man standing in the middle
of three lanes of traffic and almost getting hit by two cars before having to
jog away. In what could be termed as negligence, the man in the video looks to
be in danger of being hit from two sides as he plants himself in the centre of
the road to snap the photo.Video of the
incident also shows that one of the motorists involved in the collision stopped
in the fast lane of the 70mph dual carriageway in Northampton without his
hazard lights on. It describes the scene as the shocking moment a man was almost hit by
two cars as he stood in the middle of a busy road in order to take a photo- the one who uploaded captioned the clip:
'It's not a good idea to stand in a live lane to take a photo.'

The footage begins
with Karl's vehicle in the middle lane as he approaches a busy roundabout. As
he gets closer to the roundabout, two black vehicles in front of him have
slowed down - and a man wearing a black jacket can be seen standing in the
middle of the road taking a picture.This
forces the first car to swerve to the right to avoid the man while the second
vehicle has to weave around him too.The
footage, captured on a dashcam, shows the man standing brazenly in the middle
of three lanes of traffic on a busy motorway.The man finally gets himself off the road realizing the danger , and
approaches another man wearing a white shirt and tie, who appears to be the
other motorist involved in the collision.

With regards – S.
Sampathkumar

14th Feb
2018.

Tailpiece
:Risk is a 2017 American documentary
film written and directed by Laura Poitras about the WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange. The film's original premise was
to address the life of Julian Assange, documenting scenes showing "motives
and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle, focusing on the risks taken
by persons involved in the well-known Wikileaks website, the most notable risk
being taken by Assange himself. The film then presents documentation of
Assange's asylum claim, and the disguising of himself to sneak into the Embassy
of Ecuador in London for refuge.Originally
titled "Asylum", the film becomes a journey into the perception of
Poitras, who, in the re-cut of the film, altered the film's focus on the
experience of risk-taking left-leaning media work, towards a critique of
Assange as a flawed character under attack, including for his alleged mistreatment
of women.